distcc is a program to distribute compilations across several, not
necessarily identical, machines on a network. The distcc client sends all
necessary information to the available DistCC servers (running distccd)
so they can compile pieces of sourcecode for the client. The net result is a
faster compilation time.

You can find more elaborate information about distcc (and information on
how to have it work with Gentoo) in our Gentoo
Distcc Documentation.

Installing DistCC

Distcc ships with a graphical monitor to monitor tasks that your computer is
sending away for compilation. If you use Gnome then put 'gnome' in your
USE setting. However, if you don't use Gnome and would still like to have
the monitor then you should put 'gtk' in your USE setting.

Installing distcc is, as is with all software available through Gentoo's
Portage, extremely easy:

From now on, as you now know how to install binary packages if you want, we will
omit the --usepkg option throughout the rest of the Gentoo Handbook.

# emerge distcc

Activating Portage Support

Well, if installation is easy, the rest should be easy too :) So let us quickly
activate the Portage support for distcc.

First, open /etc/make.conf and edit the FEATURES variable so
it contains the distcc keyword. Next, edit the MAKEOPTS variable
so it reads -jX with X the number of active distccd hosts
(including the host that will use distcc even though it doesn't
necessarily need to run distccd) plus one: